New Writer Hired For Scarface Update

While David Ayer can be proud for his work on his latest directorial effort, End of Watch, which opened to rave reviews a few weeks ago, apparently Universal Pictures wasn't too ecstatic about his latest draft on the upcoming Scarface remake and has brought in a new writer. Paul Attanasio, who wrote the script for Steven Soderbergh's 2006 film The Good German and created the series Homicide: Life on the Street, has been hired to rework the script for the new movie.

Deadline says that Universal plans to update the story of an immigrant coming to America and rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld to modern times with the movie, such as what the 1983 film did for the 1932 version. The studio is keeping mum about where the main character in the new film will come from, and Deadline points out that this information has been very important in the past, with the first movie featuring an Italian gangster moving into Chicago and the second following a Cuban's rise in Miami. Marc Shmuger and Martin Bregman are producing the new version, which doesn't have a director attached yet.

Splitting his career between television and movies, Attanasio's other credits include the Jack Ryan adventure The Sum of All Fears, the Johnny Depp undercover cop thriller Donnie Brasco, and the true life drama Quiz Show (the last two titles both earned him Academy Award nominations fore Best Adapted Screenplay). While his writing career has remained unchained since the 2008 TV drama Courtroom K, he served as an executive producer on the series House, M.D. from 2004 to 2012.